. The audience and appreciation are starting to build, in its third season, for Treme, just as it did late for the brilliant David Simon‘s earlier The Wire. Whether it is the worlds of the inner city drug trade, policing, municipal government, unions, education, or journalism in Baltimore, or of high end chefs and dining in Treme, [...]

. Feeling low, in despair, beset by the boorish and the brutish? There’s a cure for that. Back in May, Julia and I, along with jazz rabbi Charlie K, dropped in on Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Jack DeJohnette at the Catlalina Bar & Grill in Los Angeles. The new trio’s tour was billed as a [...]

. “When I was young, I dreamed of a boy searching for God. Now I am old, and I dream of God searching for a boy.” The focus of yesterday’s Jazz Is, the vocal standard “Nature Boy,” was written by eden ahbez. This is not like saying written by Johnny Mercer or Jimmy Van Heusen. ahbez [...]

. For a marvelous contrast, sample both of the versions below of eden ahbez‘s famous jazz ballad, “Nature Boy.” The first is a classic, serenely tasteful rendition by Nat King Cole, who first performed and recorded the song. The second, longer performance is the stunningly inventive rendition arranged by Ross Burford and Connaitre Miller for Howard University’s Jazz [...]

. Just take this as an add shot to your morning espresso. Related articles Here, There & Everywhere: Jazz at the Federal opens (irom.wordpress.com) Jazz For Young People: What Is New Orleans Jazz? At Jazz At Lincoln Center (bxcheapskate.com) New Orleans Jazz Sensation’s New Album Highlights a Montage of Music Culture (pr.com)

It was a foggy night. Or a long night, and my heart was foggy. The bright lights glared. The crazy cat stared. All around the city no one waited. From across the bay the foghorn made no call. I walked. Came to a club. Something moaned inside. I went in. There were smoke signals. Whiskey. [...]

. One of my occasional exceptions to the has-to-be-an-interesting-video rule. The last time I heard this, a couple of months ago, I was sitting in a storefront window on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan with a cup of coffee, thinking about love. There’s Wall Street and politics, and there’s real life, before, during, and after. A Billie Holiday original. Don’t bother. [...]

I periodically have to offer the disclaimer that while this series was conceived to offer interesting video of fine jazz performances, I do at times reserve the right and make the exception, under the Make the Exception clause, section 15, part B of the Reserve the Right rules of 2010, to be so bowled over [...]

While I was laboring over the Wisconsin labor crisis and neglecting my regular features, Dexter Gordon, much beloved sax man, had a birthday. Gordon, who died in 1990, was born on February 27, 1923. Here is how his Wikipedia entry introduces him: Gordon is one of the most influential and iconic figures in Jazz and [...]

If you came of age watching the Academy Awards play all hail Hollywood while the most innovative filmmaking was ignored, or the Grammy’s spend the 60s and 70s honoring mainstream bland while rock was busting out all over, Sunday night’s Grammy Awards delivered the pleasure of the voting membership delivering up its Best New Artist [...]

Only twenty years separate these two numbers. Glenn Miller‘s “In the Mood,” recorded in 1939, is one of the most famous pieces of the Swing, big band era. Here it is in a rendition led by Tex Beneke, who took charge of Miller’s orchestra in the immediate post-War years, after Miller disappeared in a flight [...]

Today is the birthday of Stan Getz, great saxophonist of the lineage of Lester Young and known as “the sound” for that sweet and mellow tone, gone now nearly twenty years. Here he plays “Out of Nowhere” in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1960, with Jan Johansson on piano, Ray Brown on bass, and Ed Thigpen on [...]

Even if you’re old enough to remember him, even if you’ve seen film or video, you’ve probably never seen and heard Louis Armstrong like this. He was young, and the cat could scat – and swing. In Copenhagen. [ad#adsense] Related articles The House of Jazzman Louis Armstrong: The Corona, Queens, house where jazz… (curbed.com) Visitors’ [...]